To contrast TPM’s grim take on Cheney’s prognosis, here’s a story in my local paper about a trumpet player Cheney’s age who’s doing quite well with a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD):
The external battery pack is a small price to pay for Paul’s renewed health and vitality. “I’m feeling better than I’ve felt for years,” he said. “The surgery even helped my kidney function, because now it gets more blood supply.”
He’s a year post-op, and looking good.
Lolis
Cheney is too rich to die this young.
Spaghetti Lee
I won’t wish death on him, and I won’t cackle about it if he does go, but I won’t be sorry about it either. He has spent a very long career doing mostly very bad things for this country, and we will be better off without his what could politely be called saber-rattling.
schrodinger's cat
The trumpet player seems half of Cheney’s size, the LVAD doesn’t have to work as hard. That said I think Cheney will survive, I find TPM’s lack of faith disturbing…
lamh32
@Spaghetti Lee:
I’m agree with ya.
Michael D.
So sad, Dick Cheney. I wish he was dead. I really do. 9 years ago. I don’t care. I believe it’s ok to wish people are dead. Even if you supported them at the time.
Especially.
freelancer
@lamh32:
I won’t disparage the man on the internet (not today anyway),
but once he’s gone, they better have round the clock surveillance and security at his gravesite.
One day, maybe a week later, maybe 25 years down the road, I’m going to be in proximity to Cheney’s final resting place, and I won’t have to look for a bathroom.
Sorry to sound like a Freeper, frontpagers, but Cheney is where I get as vicious as I can get, the man just brings it out in me. He’s arrogant scum and is directly responsible for the loss and suffering of hundreds of thousands of lives.
beltane
I hope Cheney lives for a long, long time because I really will not be able to tolerate the inevitable hagiography the MSM will subject us to in the event of his demise.
Tank Hueco
@Michael D.:
I don’t wish he was dead. I have no illusions that a DSM-definition psychopath like him will ever repent. But his death will do nothing to change the damage done.
calipygian
Fuck him. Seriously. I hope he suffers. I can’t wait to throw shit at his caisson as they drag his corpse to the Capital Rotunda.
Hell, I’ll stand in line to piss in the coffin.
MikeJ
Everyone still talks about how badly they were shocked
But me, I expected it to happen, when I seen him lose control
He built a fire on Main Street and shot it full of holes
lamh32
@freelancer:
I got no problem with that. Once he’s dead, I would actually be insulted if people, I respected, were to suddenly start to idololize Darth Cheny in death.
But I’m just not gonna hope for the death itself. I mean once he’s dead, then what. At this moment in time, his death means nothing. It just means that we will be hearing even more from Lil Darth, ie Liz Cheney, as if we don’t already hear too much.
Jeff
Color me skeptical as well. It remains to be seen how well these devices hold up,or whether they significantly improve survival. While I have no problem with the trumpet player, and I hope he does well, anyone who’s heart is that far gone is basically cheating death by every day he lives.
lamh32
@calipygian:
Actually, I think it’d be better to wait til his already buried. it don’t matter how much we hait Darth Vader, protesters at his funeral, or demonstrations at the rotunda, makes us how different than those freaks who picket soldiers funerals and such.
I like @freelancer: idea better.
Omnes Omnibus
@freelancer: My feelings about Cheney are here. EC wrote it about Thatcher but it works for Dick.
Lev
@Spaghetti Lee: I don’t think that’s true. His career in the House was conservative, but not terribly wingnutty. His service as White House Chief of Staff was highly regarded. And his service as Secretary of Defense was honorable I’d say, one marked by a victory in the first Iraq War and the beginning of huge cuts to defense spending.
Personally, I don’t think Cheney is an evil guy. I’m sure he doesn’t see himself that way. But everything he stands for at this point is awful, and all that honorable service simply didn’t prepare him for 9/11. It must be tough to be found so thoroughly lacking as Cheney has been, but it’s just a sign that we all have to avoid the sort of hubris that led Cheney down so dark a road.
Brendancalling
I hope it’s painful and long. He’s a horrible disgusting piece of shit who’s responsible for thousands of deaths, probably millions. He’s helped defile the Constitution and our rights.
He’s one of history’s monsters. I hope there’s a Hell, so he can burn there.
fraught
I know what it feels like to be 69, when even healthy people hear the ring of mortality and feel the rush of time. Mr. Cheney is taking these steps to extend his time here but it will be time he will spend trying to justify his life to himself, and his thoughts will be full of doubts and he will have many hours of fear although he will never admit it. This is a good thing.
lamh32
OT, but this is why my friends and I call nancy pelosi “ride or die”. After all the tensions between Dem headline out there, she speaks her piece to power, and then once she does, she aint’ got nothing else to say on the matter. And her people pretty much fall in line. Can Harry Reid say the same?
After meeting at White House:
Robert Gibbs?
lamh32
Okay, this is OT too, but damn if it just makes my damn head hurt that people actually take this woman seriously. This is why I don’t talk politics with the ladies I work with, many of them are conserv Texan repub, and if any of them actually showed any support of this woman, then I just don’t even know if I could work with them anymore. Anyway,
VIDEO: Sarah Palin calls Obama “half white or half Black,” wants him to “refudiate” NAACP
Steeplejack
@Lev:
I think in some sense Cheney was driven mad by 9/11, and it colored everything afterward.
beltane
@lamh32: Funny. I call Sarah Palin a “half-wit” all the time and I will not “refudiate” this statement.
Come to think of it, calling her a half-wit is being overly charitable.
Wag
Dick Cheney will die one day. The talking heads at MTP will talk about him for a week or two and be done. Nobody will mourn and no will think twice about him within a week.
Except Dick Greggory.
And if be ends up with a heart transplant (LVADs are often q bridge to transplant). I’ll know the he finally has a heart.
wasabi gasp
Hopefully, good-humored nurses are trying to raise Cheney’s spirits by sneaking up on him and going “Boo!”
beltane
@Wag: No, no, no. Dick Cheney is deeply adored by the Villagers. They will talk about nothing else for at least a week, and he will receive wall-to-wall coverage of his lavish state funeral. It will be a combination of Michael Jackson and Pope John Paul II. And you’ll have George Will and Peggy Noonan and David Brooks praising this fiend’s accomplishments and character in ways that will make us all physically ill. Let us hope this man archives immortality so we do not have to hear him eulogized by the wanker brigade.
MikeJ
@lamh32: It’s driving me nuts. I can’t think of the malapropism used by a republican on the West Wing. Gov. Ritchie probably.
It wasn’t quite as stupid as refudiate.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@beltane: This.
Also2, both Bush II and Palin are sure to speak about him. The English language might never recover.
PaulW
@freelancer:
Freelancer, I’m saving an entire liter of Mountain Dew for Cheney, I swear.
I say we need to charge Cheney in a courtroom now, before he dies. Get his crimes of torture and deficit creation (Dear GOP: THE CURRENT DEFICITS ARE YOUR GODDAMN FAULT) on the record now.
MikeJ
@PaulW: Deficit creation isn’t a crime. Otherwise I agree with you.
tomvox1
Bob Dylan had it right many, many moons ago:
And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand over your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead./a>
Fuck Cheney.
Roger Moore
@freelancer:
Good luck finding it. I’m sure that he’ll be buried in an undisclosed location to protect his grave from terrorists.
Hal
I’m proud to say everything I know about LVADs I learned from my brief sting watching Grey’s Anatomy.
Cheney will be fine as long as Izzie Stevens doesn’t fall in love with him.
Mnemosyne
The only thing that would piss me off is if he gets a heart transplant, because there are a heck of a lot better candidates than a 69-year-old man with multiple health problems. One probably wouldn’t even be medically indicated at this point, but I’m sure ol’ Dick could buy himself one, even if it meant shooting another old man in the face.
Dick Cheney’s own heart slowly seizing up on him even if it means the asshole lives for another 10 years? I’m fine with that. If nothing else, it’s an object lesson in what happens if you let a body part atrophy.
BethanyAnne
yay for post ops! >.>
Mnemosyne
@tomvox1:
Elvis Costello wrote a similar song for Margaret Thatcher.
Note to self: never piss off Elvis Costello.
Michael
I thought he could just make himself better by swimming in and guzzling the blood of a couple of dozen 6 year old virgins each day.
Is the supply inadequate?
Mnemosyne
@Mnemosyne:
Just a tiny selection:
tomvox1
@Mnemosyne:
Yup. Genius singer-songwriters generally do not like Neocons. LOL.
Wag
I doubt it. Deeply feared? Sure. Loved? No.
I predict a ding dong the wicked witch is dead moment.
MikeJ
@Roger Moore: It had better be at a crossroads.
@Mnemosyne: There was a band in the 90’s named Hefner that had a similar idea.
Glen Tomkins
There’s a narrow window
The story doesn’t go into enough detail to be sure, but the trumpet player probably was one of the very few people who had a loss of heart function so bad that the implantation was worth it, but not so bad that he didn’t have enough residual natural function to smooth out the VAD’s inherent inflexibility.
That’s the major inherent defect of the VAD — it isn’t capable of the same finely calibrated response to ever-changing demand as the biological heart we’re all born with. It works best, gives a result that is both more comfortable to people and less likely to get them in physiologic trouble, if it is able to act as an assist and adjunct rather than having to take over the pump function entirely, if there’s enough funtionality remaining in the bio-heart that the bio-heart can provide the necessary variability on top of the steady output of the mechanical device.
But if you have that much funtion remaining in your own heart, that it only needs an underlying assist, but it’s still capable of a wide enough range of pump function that you get a good physiologic result — then you can probably get by without the assist. Very few people will be in that small range of heart dysfunction, bad enough heart function that they really need the VAD, but not so bad that it can’t help them. Or at least, can’t help them on an indefinite basis, which is why these devices are mostly used as a temporary bridge, to preserve life until the better alternative is available.
Since the VAD caries a very hefty price tag — I mean human costs, though the money price tag isn’t too shabby either — there is a strong impetus to avoid using it unless the patient both really needs it, and will really benefit from it. Not many people fit into this category, at least if the benefit involved is indefinite use, as seems to be the case for the trumpet player. And if the benefit sought is use as a mere temporizing measure until something else can be done, well, that usually doesn’t work out too well either for many patients, since the “something else” is usually something else highly invasive, high risk, and otherwise high human cost, like a transplant.
The grim picture the commenter at TPM paints is more common than the good result obtained by this trumpeter. While it isn’t completely clear that Cheney doesn’t fit into the trumpeter’s situation, there is some indication (mention is made of a recent MI that seems to have left him emergently with too little function) that his is the more common, less happy, situation. This looks like something they were forced to do urgently by a sudden really bad — oth sizable and not responsive to medication or surgical intervention — loss of function.
MikeJ
@MikeJ: And I forgot Morrissey’s “Margaret On The Guillotine.”
The kind people
Have a wonderful dream
Margaret On The Guillotine
Cause people like you
Make me feel so tired
When will you die ?
Keith
I’ll be a decent person and wish Cheney the best of health, because, frankly, even though I disagree with him to the tune of 90% of the time, he at least seems to believe in his convictions. Rush Limbaugh, on the other hand, can rot in the shithouse of hell (and I’ll sing a cheerful ukelele song about it) when he dies, given how much of a disgusting, tasteless piece of shit he is *every* time someone of an opposing viewpoint passes on.
Mike in NC
Did they remove Saddam Hussein’s heart and put it in a freezer somewhere after they hanged him? Because that would be so appropriate for Dick “Dickhead” Cheney, that draft dodging, war loving bastard.
Jager
My ex wife is a cardiologist (I paid for much of her schooling via D-i-v-o-r-c-e) she tells me about 40% of the patients don’t pitch in and take care of themselves after devices are implanted or surgery is done. (like by passes, stents, etc.) They are are back in shit shape within a year or two, lets see what Cheney decides to do. I’m thinking he’ll continue to be fat, out of shape and a miserable prick. We’ll be able to say “Buh-Bye” by 2012 or 13.
Lesley
Cheney dying of heart failure would be a fitting end for a man who chose to live a heartless life.
If an afterlife exists for this veritable Scrooge, I hope Charles Dickens is the architect.
MikeB
At his age and condition, he probably would not survive
transplant surgery and transplant centers would be reluctant to
waste a donated heart on him given the poor prognosis.
Sounds cold, but that’s the way transplant centers work.
Pavlov's Dog
Surprised no one has brought up the story of when Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Feith would leave a meeting with Reagan/Bush. They would have a chuckle and call them “the crazies”. Amazing in hindsight that Reagan and Bush Sr would be RINO’s in today Republican party.
Allison W.
@lamh32:
“Making It In America” – Me Likey.
suzanne
@MikeJ: For a more contemporary example, there’s always this little ditty from the Deftones:
He’s not smart, a C student
And that’s after buying his way into school
Beady eyes, and he’s kinda dyslexic
Can he read? No one’s really quite sure
He signs stuff and he executes people
Maybe that’s why, he doesn’t have any friends
Cocaine and a little drunk driving
Doesn’t matter, when you’re the Commander in Chief.
Idiot son of an asshole
He’s the idiot son of an asshole
Catsy
The only value Cheney’s life brings to this world is the possibility that one day–thinking optimistically here, bear with me–he will answer for his many crimes in a court of law.
Yeah, I know. But as long as there’s that possibility, there’s a small part of me that actually gives a shit whether this monster lives or dies. The scope of the human suffering for which he’s responsible is staggering, and the best fate I could wish for him involves living out the remainder of his life in prison, discredited and alone.
With that said, I don’t think you’ll see the same level of hagiography that we did with Reagan. When Reagan died, his presidency was 20 years in the past and pre-internet, and Republicans have spent all those years manufacturing the glowing mythology of Ronaldus Maximus. Cheney’s crimes are too recent–and too well-documented. He has an approval rating just above HIV and is not particularly well-liked even among many Republicans.
Oh, Fox and the Villagers will try, but I don’t think it’d wash.
JBerardi
This is the thing that always bugged me about Cheney, going back to the 2000 election. He’d had a long and accomplished career, more money than God, and had heart problems… and he decided to run for shadow-president anyway. WHY?! Why not just go home, spend your few remaining years with your family, maybe go shoot some
friendsquail, that kind of thing? Was it necessary to engineer a pointless, almost incalculably costly war just so he could funnel some massive no-bid contracts to his former employer? Did he honestly think he was making the world a better place? He’s clearly too smart for that. I’m left with no explanation for his actions other than that he’s just an evil, vindictive bastard who got a jolly from bending the world over and fucking it in the ass.Just one more sociopath, I guess. Plenty of them around.
jhh
I wish Darth Cheney a lingering, miserable life chained to a power supply. Maybe he will confess his evil acts and apologize to the victims, as did Lee Atwater, Reagan’s political hitman, when he was dying of brain cancer. But I doubt it.
steve
fewer pronouns please. it’s unclear which group is meant by which ‘them’.
freelancer (itouch)
@suzanne:
Big deftones fan. Never heard that one. Mebbe cos is by NOFX.
/pedant
LiberalTarian
It hurts my liberal heart to say I wish he would die, painfully, without solace, with no one to grieve him.
So I won’t say it. But I can’t help but think it.
Elie
@suzanne:
Well said
I am completely conflicted —
As a health care professional, it is antithetical to wish someone dead.
That said, I acknowledge the damage and cruelty of this human and what he wrought — not only directly, but through the thoughts and desires and reflections that he shared way long after he should have retired into silent acceptance of the progression of our government to a new administration..
History will be his judge. His descendants, including his despicable daughter will have to hear their “father” mocked and disparaged for a long time. Maybe now, his daughter can abide it, but will they two generations hence?
Cardiac disease, as diseases go, is not one of the most painful. It is withering away, losing power and strength slowly, losing capacity and ability to engage. Maybe that way is a fitting end for this person. Old man with puffy legs, fitful memory and oxygen canulas in the nose — far away from power and influence,,, remembering only bitter images of loss and repudiation. I like that…
KG
@Steeplejack: I think that can be said for many, many people in our society. Rather driven mad or scared, it really has “changed everything.” If 9/11 doesn’t happen, my guess is that Bush’s presidency would have been a) shorter; and b) of much less consequence.
Steeplejack
@JBerardi:
@As I said above, I really think 9/11 snapped something inside Cheney.
I have read some vague “hints and innuendos” pieces that seem to indicate that there may have been mental side effects to Cheney’s cardiac problems, but none of the articles goes very far. But there are a remarkable number of public comments from former Cheney colleagues to the effect that “this Dick Cheney [2001-09] is not the guy I remember.”
. . . Did a quick Google search and found this Krauthammer gem from 2007. Make of it what you will.
suzanne
@freelancer (itouch): Ruh-roh. Has Shazam failed me?!
Yes, it has. Yes. NoFX is right and I am RONG.
suzanne
Talking about Cheney is depressing.
Kitteh/puppeh thread, pleez.
freelancer (itouch)
@suzanne:
It’s all good. There was no malice in it.
JBerardi
@Steeplejack:
I don’t buy it. Doesn’t explain why he engineered his own nomination as VP in 2000… 9/11 didn’t make him evil, although it clearly facilitated the implementation of his various criminal plots.
The most shocking thing about that article is that Krauthammer was “chief resident of the psychiatric consultation service at Massachusetts General Hospital”. WTF? How do you pull a career shift from that to “stupid fucking sociopathic neocon dildo-licker asshole”?
Chad N Freude
If Cheney has a heart transplant, I would not be surprised if the heart rejected him.
Re “refudiate”: It’s a perfect example of a portmanteau word: smog, brunch, gerrymander, etc. etc. and so forth. I think we have a winner here.
Jason Bylinowski
I’m a big fan of candor in general, but the attitude on every left-leaning blog tonight about Cheney is, well, in need of some class. Death is the great destroyer, and even though I can’t stand Cheney, I wish him and his family well. No doubt he should be in jail right now, but there are very very few people in this world that I can say I’d rather see in the ground.
mai naem
Well, I don’t think Dickie is going to be having any fun. At some point he’s going to be a slave to his oxygen. He’s going to tire easily from the heart failure. He’s going to be swelling up esp. his legs. And if his legs swell up enough, he’s going to get water blisters on his legs. Sometimes those are humongous.
I am not sure the trumpeteer is an appropriate comparison to Cheney. My guess is that his lungs were in much better shape based solely on his blowing the trumpet. I knew a guy who had a bypass and had a really quick recovery which his doc said was because he was a horn player and had great lungs.
BTW, remember how we were told Dick was just in fine shape to be VP Really? This guy was VP less than two years ago. Was it really okay for a guy in this kind of crappy physical shape to be VP? Is that good for national security(Yes, I know what people will say)?
KG
@JBerardi: I think he simply saw an opportunity when taking the VP nomination. The other thought is maybe he thought that W was in over his head and that he could be there to guide the young prince. But at the end of the day, he succumbed to the fear.
Steeplejack
@JBerardi:
I think that was pretty much a conventional political move, although very ballsy. “Hey, it would be cool to be V.P. and really pull some strings behind the scenes, especially with this malleable ‘tard as prez.”
But that pales in comparison to all the extraordinary shit that went down after 9/11.
JBerardi
@KG:
Sure, but why was he even interested in that opportunity? I’m going with my original assertion of “he’s just an evil, vindictive bastard who got a jolly from bending the world over and fucking it in the ass.”
JBerardi
@Steeplejack:
Yeah, I mean, my point exactly. A normal person, at that stage in their life, would retire and live out his autumn years with his family and friends. Cheney wanted, needed, to be in power and to impose his will upon the world.
Steeplejack
@Jason Bylinowski:
Well, the consensus seems to be that Cheney is one of the few. YMMV.
ETA: I personally don’t want him dead–I would prefer that someday he stand trial for what he did, unlikely as that is–but I understand the emotion of the people that do.
Ruckus
I’m a pretty liberal person and don’t normally wish ill on anyone, but we have to recognize that there have been and are really evil people in the world. The ones who rise to some sort of power and abuse it to the extent of darth do not deserve our hopes or prayers. And even if he was good or at least not evil at some point in life, that does not make up for what he has done, to this country and to the world. This world is a pretty small place anymore, made a lot crappier by his actions. There is nothing that will happen to him in life that will make up for his life and the only thing that could be better than his death would be for him to die in shame.
Kyle
Please, please don’t let him die. I want to see him frog-marched to jail, and if he dies, my dream will die. He free to suffer extensively until that happens. I hope one day America realizes what he did to this country.
randiego
Vampires never die.
rageahol
I understand the desire to not wish ill on the man.
but for fucks sake, he will never answer for his many crimes. they even gave fucking pinochet medical leave.
the best thing he can do is die quickly, so that we can collectively examine his legacy without having to have the media catch the vapors about it because hes still alive.
Joel
If Cheney dies, what miniscule hope I have that he’ll be held accountable – if even by a trusted friend – for his crimes dies with him.
MikeJ
@Joel: “If” he dies? I know we all joke about unholy deals he must have signed, but we do all agree he will die at some point, I hope.
NobodySpecial
He may have gone insane after 9/11. That’s been the observation of one or more of his friends in their private moments. People such as Neil Rosenberg who knew him for decades publicly admit that Cheney is not what he once was.
If that’s so, though, there’s no good reason the people around him inflicted his diseased worldview on the rest of us. Allowed him to do so much damage on his way down.
Either Cheney is a sociopath or half the Bush Administration is. Or both. I can’t mourn him if he dies or wish his soul well. I hope his family doesn’t suffer too much.
wengler
The Village will pre-emptively attack when Cheney goes by making any figure with any sort of influence or power not on the rightwing fringe repudiate and condemn the inevitable gleeful response from all across the country and the world.
We have been taught for nearly nine years now that killing bad people is awesome. The powers-that-be frame up their death pictures and show them happily to world at press conferences. No one will have killed Cheney. He will have died of a bum ticker.
Too bad his heart didn’t blow up years ago. He would’ve been celebrated as a career Republican bureaucrat. Much like Benedict Arnold should’ve died at Saratoga, Cheney should’ve shuffled off his mortal coil after Desert Storm. Erase all trace of him like a terrible Roman emperor.
patrick II
@Lev: I am not sure i agree. Read “Angler” the story of Cheney’s presidency. No I didn’t misspell that.
Dick Manipulated himself into the vp’s job from being chief of the selection committe, and then put neocons like Liddy, Wolfowittz, David Frum, and a bunch of others in important positions of power. President did not see people Cheney didn’t think he should have or when he should have,
Cheney controlled much of the access.
Cheny was planning war regardless before 9/11, but 9/11 fed his deepest paranoid fears and made him even more ruthless and he already had his people in place.
By the second term Bush had started figuring he was a captive president the but by them much of the damage had been done.
Cheney was a paranoid power seeker before 9-11ever hit. Whatever happened to him happened before 9/111, but 911 made it worse.
a1
Oh man, having a painful death due to heart failure and knowing you’re the most hated and despised US leader in history is letting him off *SO* easy.
Here’s what should happen to Dick Cheney. He should have his ailing ass put into suspended animation, but not before they grab some DNA from him first. Then once cloning’s been mostly figured out, make up a batch of Cheney clones. Then once the clones reach around 20-30 years or so, revive the original Cheney and force him to watch as, one by one, Dick Cheney gets tortured to death via waterboarding, I mean, “simulated drowning”. And after each one, they give the original Cheney the chance to finally do the honorable thing and blow his own head off, but he has to use Harry Whittington’s rifle to do it.
Anything less, and there’s no justice for the things he’s done.
fucen tarmal
this is my great bisnezz idea, you take folks like cheney; people, people love to hate, gather them all in a cemetary, attach some bars to it,for a cover charge and some high-priced drinks, people will come specifically to piss on those people they hate’s graves.
now sure the survivors get a cut, for putting the body in my cemetary, but hey, they had to put up with the bastard in ways we can’t imagine.
Ripley
He will die, and go to hell: greeted as a liberator.
Allan
That’s a touching story with a feel-good ending. I could read that over and over!
Oh, and the article about the trumpet player was nice too.
Yutsano
Without revealing too much, I have had a personal interaction with Mr. Cheney. He is not very personable or warm, mostly because I think he evaluates people by their relative usefulness to him. Could just be my impression of him however.
Also: I can haz late night open thread plz? Kthxbai!
FlipYrWhig
Did you see that when this story was covered on Rachel Maddow, they said that with this piece of equipment Cheney literally won’t have a pulse? I mean, that’s a _golden_ make-your-own-joke premise.
You just _know_ as they discuss it that behind the scenes the TRMS staff is desperately trying to maintain professionalism and composure.
Bat Guano
I for one hope he doesn’t die. I hope he lives for a long time and in GREAT physical discomfort. A vegetative state would be too kind, I’m wishing for maybe some pain the equivalent of red hot pokers on bare flesh, for as long as he can be kept alive. I will wish his family well when it can be proved to me that they will not follow in his footsteps.
bago
So Cheney always held his energy executive confabs at B. Smiths in union station. Southern deep fried extravaganza.
Just Sayin.
bago
@Wag: Dude shot a guy in the face and had ‘shot in the face’ guy apologize.
Yutsano
@bago: And ironically enough, that slaw you linked to is probably the healthiest thing on the menu. Pretty ballsy too: I’ve NEVER seen collards eaten raw before.
russell
The man is almost 70 years old and he’s had five heart attacks, the first when he was 37.
We all go sometime. It’s amazing he’s not dead already.
He’s got great doctors and resources that 99.999% of the people in this country will never see. They’ll keep him alive as long as they can, and if that means a heart transplant, he will get one, even if it means somebody else doesn’t get theirs.
Cheney has been a power-hungry authoritarian weirdo for decades. The only change I see post 9/11 is that the paranoia component was dialed up to 11.
I don’t wish him ill and I’ll take no particular pleasure from his death. It won’t make me cry, either.
What I would take pleasure from is seeing him answer for what he’s done. I’m not holding my breath.
Warren Terra
I’d like to be as civilized as Russell, but I’d still like to ask: if Cheney does get a heart transplant, is there anything in the Hippocratic Oath against putting a stake through the one they remove?
Yutsano
@Warren Terra: Specifically in the Oath? No. However the family might have some strange objection to it. I think Liz would want the old heart enbalmed and venerated.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: You are not revealing enough.
I will take no pleasure when Cheney dies, nor will I mourn. I really wish he would have to answer for his crimes while here on earth, but on the other hand, that might garner sympathy for him. I think he will have his hagiography when he dies, which will be more disturbing to me than his death itself.
However, I cannot forget how much harm he has done to this country and for what? Nothing. What a fucking waste.
@Yutsano: I loathe Cheney Jr. so very much. I can imagine her sleeping with the embalmed heart in a jar cuddled to her chest.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
Is it wrong of me that when you said this the first daughter I thought of was Mary? Even though she is pretty far in the lipstick spectrum. Liz is just fucking creepy to me.
Batocchio
One of the few good things the Cheneys have done is give a large sum of money to the George Washington University Medical Center (because of the aid they’ve given him).
I’d like to see Dick Cheney live long enough to go on trial for war crimes, or at least long enough to see himself, his daughter and his entire family exposed and disgraced. Or maybe long enough to get dementia and start babbling the truth to someone with a recording device. While I don’t anticipate many if any of the torture team and the Bush administration in general facing justice, I’d at least like to see the truth come out, and have their reckless, dangerous BS discredited. As a nation, we simply can’t afford the Cheney approach to – well, anything.
It’s harsh to say, but had Cheney died of natural causes, 10-15-20 years ago, America and the entire world would have been much, much better off. Read Angler and The Dark Side, if you haven’t – the reality was often worse than what Cheney’s strongest critics suspected, and more will perhaps come out later. He lied to the American people, but also lied to Congress in briefings, lied to members of his own party in private, and spied on members of his own administration. If you’re going to forgive the guy, at least find out what he did first.
One of the saner Bushies – Wilkerson or Armitage, I think- said that Cheney was doing what he thought was right, but was destroying the country. That’s about the most charitable take. Historians with a long view may nominate someone else, and Cheney’s aide Addington is even more arrogant than he is, but Dick Cheney is probably the most arrogant, ruthless and truly evil man ever to hold high office in the United States. There is a difference between wishing Cheney ill, and wishing he will face justice. There’s also a difference between those two and simply recognizing how destructive and corrosive he was to American democracy.
(At the very least, one of the legitimate networks (not Fox) should fact-check and expose Liz Cheney, and stop giving her a platform to shamelessly lie and peddle her McCarthyist shtick on the air.)
Yutsano
@Batocchio:
Three words for you: Nah. Gunna. Happen. Her father is a huge part of the Washington establishment, and she is trying just as hard to get inside the cocktail party circuit so she can enjoy the privileges on her own rather than just under daddy’s shadow. Plus she’s the bigger true believer of the two. Liz will always have a warm chair and a tongue bath waiting on FOX so she will never go anywhere. And since no other news organization will challenge FOX, she knows she’s safe.
Wile E. Quixote
I’m going to shit on Dick Cheney’s grave, and then I’m going to call his whore of a daughter Liz and say “Hey Liz, your dad’s dead and burning in Hell. Hope you join him soon, you lazy, cowardly bitch.” Dick Cheney is shit, he always has been, from his days as a drunken draft-dodger in the 1960s to his service as vice-president. I want him to suffer horribly and then I want him to die painfully.
Perhaps he can get MRSA while he’s in the hospital and end up losing his limbs. Sure, that’s an ugly thing to have happen and I know because I’ve met people who had it happen to them (and narrowly escaped having it happen to myself) but it would be absolutely fucking hilarious if it happened to Dick Cheney, especially if he contracted one of those really bitchin strains that’s also resistant to Vancomycin. That would make my whole week.
Yep, I want to shit on Dick Cheney’s grave, then I’ll load up on chili and jalapeno peppers and find out where Robert S. McNamara is buried and hopefully by then Donald Rumsfeld will be dead too. I’m willing to bet that there’s going to be a long line though.
Wile E. Quixote
@russell:
I hope that Liz inherited this tendency. Maybe we should all send Cheney a get well present, like a gift certificate from Sodolak’s Country Inn.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Yes, it’s very wrong of you. Funny as hell, though.
Michael
@Yutsano:
I’m thinking that since she seems to have a taboo-like relationship with him, she’d have it incorporated into a love toy for herself….
Bobby Thomson
I know this makes me a Very Bad Person, but my reaction to this post on TPM was sorrow, anger, and regret.
Sorrow that TPM is wasting space worrying about one of the true monsters of the last 50 years, who has plenty of people on retainer in the media to do that sort of thing and even more who will do it pro bono.
Anger that Cheney will likely not live long enough to be executed for his crimes, in the unlikely event that he were ever to see prosecution.
Regret that he can die only once and that there are limits to the amount of pain the human body can endure before it stops feeling pain any more.
PurpleGirl
I wonder how much his gold-plated health care is costing me (through my taxes)?
WereBear
This is really kinda twisted.
The Partner Unit, when the dimensions of Cheney’s crime became clear, asked me what I thought should occur for such a series of acts, and I said that:
He should develop a disease where all his internal organs rotted away with great pain and he should spend his ill-gotten gains in the pursuit of illegal drugs and procedures to stave off death because he’s afraid of what comes next.
And while it scared the Partner Unit, I was simply being honest. And I didn’t wish it on him!
However, slowly losing circulation… that’s close.
Bob L
Considering Cheny has wished for, and gotten worse, on others I don’t see any reason to have any sympathy for his situation.
Joshua
The only reason I will feel sad when he dies is because he was not tried for war crimes. He is an evil man, a true monster, who has done untold amounts of harm to this country and to this world. As Hunter S. Thompson said when Nixon died, his body should be burned in a trash bin.
The Tim Channel
Maybe this will help him live long enough to attend his own trial. If not, I am comforted by the knowledge that this will merely forestall the lingering death he so richly deserves.
Enjoy.
Jennifer
Death is too good for him.
BC
My stock response to the Tea Party’s constitutionalist rhetoric is Bush/Cheney. Cheney was a resident of Texas, had voted in Texas and lived in Texas since he was Bush I’s SoD. So, he had to go to Wyoming and re-register there in order to meet the Constitution’s requirement that President and V-President be from different states. Can you imagine what the reaction today would be if Biden had had to re-register in Delaware from Illinois? There would be endless court challenges. So fuck Dick Cheney, who defied the spirit of the Constitution even if he met the letter.
eemom
as an unabashed cheeney death wisher, I must say there are some fine comments on this thread.
The thing I find amazing though, is that anybody actually believes there is ANY chance he’ll ever be brought to justice on this mortal earth. I mean idealism and hope are fine, but WTF?? How could that EVER realistically happen, short of a French-style revolution?
Pangloss
When Cheney was VP, he never had to worry about “blood supply.”
Svensker
@lamh32:
It is mind boggling that she is taken seriously by anyone, including her local PTA. (Well, given the state of her kids, maybe the PTA doesn’t take her seriously.)
bushworstpresidentever
Bob Dylan, “Masters of War” (c) 1963:
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You’ve thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain’t worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I’m young
You might say I’m unlearned
But there’s one thing I know
Though I’m younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand o’er your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead
Sheila
He’s now achieved true zombie status.
Hugin & Munin
Hey, I am down with hating on Maggie Thatch, but can we save some opprobrium for Arthur Scargill, too.
AxelFoley
@Jason Bylinowski:
If not Cheney, I’m curious as to who are the few you’d like to see in the ground.
Svensker
@Jennifer:
My feelings. Not Quakerly, for sure. I will have to pray about it and wrestle with it. But my feelings.
Louise
I know Paul, and it’s just too weird to have two distinct parts of my life colliding by seeing this article on BJ.
FWIW, we certainly didn’t think Paul was going to be around this long last summer. We thought of the device as a temporary, tenuous bridge to an inevitable heart transplant. He’s still on the list, and would have one should a heart become available.
As for Cheney, I can’t say/type anything because all my thoughts are pretty ugly.
Jason Bylinowski
@AxelFoley: Noone I can think of who is still alive. Muahahahahahah.
Cain
@MikeB:
Gosh if they only had accelerated stem cell research during Bush II’s tenure he might have gotten somewhere.
cain
Mike E
But, the puppy blood — nobody mentions the puppy blood!
grandpajohn
Too bad all those thousands of people whose life blood is on his hands never had a chance for some way to extend their life span, but he shouldn’t worry, his front row seat in hell is assured.
ruemara
Bah, I’m a pagan. I spit on him now and hope all the evil he’s done finds him. May it take an instant of forever, may the suffering be immeasurable, may truth enter his heart & mind and provide the finishing touch. So mote it be. He may not pull an Atwater but I can only hope that some knowledge of how much evil he’s caused for his own profit makes those last breaths so painful on a spiritual level that he begs for no more care.
Catsy
@Batocchio:
…this is a possibility I had not considered, and a truly heartening one. Which is another reason why…
@eemom:
…I still hold out a small glimmer of hope that I will see justice for the Bush admin’s crimes in my lifetime.
Stuff happens.
The Other Bob
I would feel terrible if Cheney died. Terrible for Obama who will get stuck saying nice things about him at his funeral.
Batocchio
@Yutsano:
Yeah, obviously FOX is a safe haven, but I expect that. What bothers me is seeing her on ABC and other more legit outlets. I don’t think Anderson Cooper has had her back since she repeatedly lied to his face (she lied about Abu Ghraib abuses having no connection to the White House, and about the report Cooper was citing that proved otherwise – one of many). I understand how incestuous Beltway culture is. What I find harder to grasp is the total lack of self-respect among many members of the chattering class. If someone humiliates you and makes a fool of you on national TV, why have them back? Most of the Sunday gasbags simply don’t care enough to press the truth in the first place, though.
As for justice in this world, the chances are very slim, although the British investigation may help make some abuses more public at least. I’d just like to uncover the most truth possible, document it and debunk the BS (like most folks on the human rights/torture beat, probably). Forget about ticking time bombs and other assorted torture myths and lies – we currently have members of Congress and other national gasbags advocating torture as a routine interrogation procedure. It’s not just immoral or illegal, it’s extremely dangerous to national security. (Self-preservation and evil often don’t mix. Who knew?)
JCT
@The Other Bob: I’m sure his fingers will be crossed behind his back the whole time.
Agree, the timing of this (as far as we know) fits with this being a “bridge” vs a “destination” implant. Most of the time when LVADs are placed even semi-urgently it is because there are really no other options. His baseline cardiac function was obviously lousy and any further loss of myocardium would likely have resulted in a failure to maintain adequate perfusion. It’s a very interesting clinical conundrum as the envelope is constantly being pushed regarding the length of implant time. The trumpeter is a very isolated story– this is not a nice way to live, but *likely* beats the alternative. I was in training when the first ones were implanted — required a power source that had to be *wheeled* alongside the patient — those very few who survived.
I will not comment on how his baseline “undead” status affects all of this .
maya
@eemom: All that can be hoped for is that a later generation will arrive at the truths of Cheney, and, like Oliver Cromwell, he’ll be dug up and beheaded.
JCT
@maya:
Have to say I like that imagery.
Gay Veteran
gee, too bad the Obama administration didn’t bring him to trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity